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New Mother Tests Positive For Opiates After Eating Poppy Seed Bagel

Last April, Baltimore woman Elizabeth Eden was informed, while she was in labor, that she tested positive for opiates and had been reported to the state.

Eden told WBAL-TV, "I was in labor. I was sitting in the bed. I was having contractions. I was on a Pitocin drip, and the doctor came in and said, 'You've tested positive for opiates." As a result, Eden's daughter was held in the hospital for five days while she was assigned a case worker from the state.

Luckily, Eden remembered from a health class how poppy seeds might trigger a false positive result. And she had eaten a poppy seed bagel earlier in the day, and had definitely not consumed any opiates. She told the news station, "I said 'Well, can you test me again? And I ate a poppy seed bagel this morning for breakfast,' and she said, 'No, you've been reported to the state."

While her daughter stayed in the hospital, the case worker heard her case, and luckily, closed the book on Eden immediately.

It's possible for people to have a false positive test for the drug after consuming poppy seed-covered pastries because, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, "While poppy seeds don't actually contain morphine, the seeds can become coated by, or absorb, opium extract during harvesting. Opium is the milky substance that is extracted along with the poppy seeds from the seed pod of the opium poppy after all the petals have fallen off."